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Stetson University Outlaws Jay Leno

Stetson University has announced that parody, “derogatory” or “demeaning” comments, and even jokes from The Tonight Show are out of bounds for its students. Stetson’s chilling declarations came after the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) protested the private Florida university’s censorship of a student magazine.

“Stetson’s Orwellian policies should scare every student on its campus,” remarked FIRE President David French. “If saying anything that could be considered ‘derogatory’ is outlawed at Stetson, its students are taking a risk by speaking at all.”

Stetson promises its students that it will provide a “liberal education” and respect “[t]he value of diverse persons and differing ideas in an educational community.” But a group of students recently learned that these promises were empty when they were denied permission to distribute the first issue of their new magazine, Common Sense, because of the magazine’s viewpoint. Senior Vice President James Beasley ordered staffers to cease distributing the paper in an October 31 letter because they had printed a Jay Leno joke about illegal immigration and superimposed a question mark over a rainbow flag-draped dormitory window. Beasley claimed that these items “targeted” Mexicans and “the sexual orientation of a particular person.”

The director of Stetson’s Cross Cultural Center, Shelley Wilson, even went so far as to send an e-mail from her university account telling at least one Common Sense advertiser that the magazine’s viewpoint “supports the worst of our society and makes it less safe for everyone.” Worse yet, this conduct is only Stetson’s latest assault on freedom of the press: the university shut down another student publication in 2003 for printing a racy April Fools’ Day edition.

FIRE wrote Stetson President H. Douglas Lee on November 2, reminding him that freedom of speech “exists precisely to protect speech that some members of a community may find controversial or ‘offensive.’” FIRE also requested that Stetson reject its policy of prior review over student publications. Stetson’s lawyer, Mark G. Alexander, rejected these requests in a November 21 letter that, among other problems, showed a woeful misunderstanding of the First Amendment. Alexander denied that the joke about Mexican immigration could be “legitimate political discourse” and stated that Jay Leno jokes might not be acceptable if made by Stetson community members. He also claimed that the parody “targeted a particular individual,” even though there was no way to tell who that individual might be from the magazine.

“Someone who believes that jokes or derogatory and insensitive comments cannot be legitimate political discourse must have missed every episode of Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show, as well as every Presidential election,” noted FIRE Director of Legal and Public Advocacy Greg Lukianoff. “And to say that showing an unidentifiable window with a rainbow flag in it ‘targets’ someone is to strip all meaning from the term.”

FIRE’s French went on to say, “Freedom of the press cannot exist at a place where the authorities read a magazine before it can even be distributed. Where this occurs on a national level, we call it a police state. At Stetson, it’s apparently just business as usual.”

FIRE is a nonprofit educational foundation that unites civil rights and civil liberties leaders, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals from across the political and ideological spectrum on behalf of individual rights, due process, freedom of expression, academic freedom, and rights of conscience at our nation’s colleges and universities. FIRE’s efforts to preserve liberty at Stetson University can be viewed at thefire.org/stetson. go to story

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[Posted at 8:23 PM by james]

# December 10th, 2005 12:44 AM Daddy

When chins are outlawed, only outlaws will have chins.

# December 11th, 2005 12:56 AM Esme

How exactly is it not within the school's legal rights to not want things published under their name which they in no way condone?

The paper would have been fully within its rights to publish independently and ask for school permission to distribute on campus without the school symbols on the paper (indicating that it was an approved publication) or to ask for school permission. The reason that the other school distributed paper (the Grotto) gets away with racier material is that it in no way represents itself as a Stetson paper, even though almost all of its contributors are Stetson students or alumni.

Because Stetson is a private university, they have certain rights that a public university does not have, including the right to protect their image by controlling the kinds of publications that come out of the school. It's not a liberal or conservative issue, it's an image issue, about the school making sure that it can keep a steady stream of incoming money from new students and alumni, and they have every right to control that image.

Stetson is not liberal. A mock election among students last year found about 75% voting Republican.

# December 11th, 2005 1:42 AM james

well, esme, to start with, (and im just taking your comment from the top down) no one needs to ask for "permission" to distribute anything in any traditional public forum, and a university campus, even a private one, is a traditional public forum. off the top of my head i'd cite marsh v. alabama, b/c this is a company town-like situation. (there are many more suitable cases to cite to, im sure)

you seem to know a lot more about stetson university and the facts of this case than the article lets on. i assume you're a stetson student?

i dont know what the masthead of this paper looks like, but im pretty sure it doesnt matter. first, even though it's a private university, stetson doesnt have the right to prevent students from identifying themselves as being students there, nor do they ahve the right to prevent a publication from targeting the stetson community. in other words, i can move to cambridge, ma and start a paper called "the harvard boozeydoggle" and be fully within my rights. second, i dont know if youre talking about protecting a trademark or not, but i dont think that's even applicable - not only is there no liklihood of confusion as to the sponsor, but even if there was, the SC has already found in a number of cases that college is the type of place where people expect differing viewpoints and that a university, even a privte university, is very limited in the types of speech it can suppress.

you cite to stetson's status as a private U and say that they have more rights that a public U has in "protecting their image." that's incorrect. both institutions have the exact same rights when it comes to "image protection." that's all trademark and unfair competition law, and nothing restricts the state from claiming the same rights as a private citizen.

finally, you seem to be responding to a line in the press release that states as a matter of fact that stetson promises "a liberal education," presumably in its advertisments, with a poltical poll that you say shows republican support... really? you are aware that the word "liberal" has other definitions, right?